Mother Knows All
by Ryntaia
Summary: Mary Wendell is a very observant mother. But sometimes it takes some closer inspection to really, truly understand. Minor ClarencexBelson.


Mother Knows All

It took a lot to be a mother.

Particularly when the one you were mothering was more than a little bit rambunctious and lacked even the smallest amount of restraint. It had been more than a small challenge to raise Clarence without the presence of his father, but she had put in the time and effort to develop the skills she needed to understand her precious child. Mary Wendell was by no means the perfect parent, not at all, but the woman figured that no one could really truly and honestly claim that they were. She could at least claim that she knew her child well—something that, in regards to Clarence, it seemed a lot of people had trouble with. Even his own teacher sometimes had a bit of difficulty with her boy's eccentric behavior.

Developing the ability to understand such a special and active son had thankfully had given her the capability to tap into understand other children as well. It was a trait she very much enjoyed, especially now that her son was making so many new friends. It wasn't that he ever had TOO much trouble with the task, it was simple that his forwardness tended to scare some off—thankfully, he had managed to stick himself quite firmly with a few children at the local school.

The two he hung out with the most were the very…active Sumozski boy, Ryan. Or 'Sumo', as he seemed to consistently be called. The very definition of a wild child, he seemed to have little to no reservations about doing questionable things simply because he wanted to. On the outside, Mary could have easily just pegged the boy as a troublemaker who should be shooed away with her son…but she knew better than that. She knew from watching him and Clarence that the boy had an absolute determination to reach any goal, and that the child would not just abandon her son for some stupid reason. It was charming, and she knew that with a little guidance he could probably balance himself out. Granted, it probably wouldn't happen any time soon, but hopefully hanging around kids so different from him could get the train going on that.

Which brought Mary to the other boy Clarence had adopted as a friend: Jeff Randall. It was almost comical to her how the brunette was essentially the exact opposite of the first child that her son had befriended. He was, upon first glance, the perfect child that any mother would want to be associating with their kid…until it became crystal clear that Jeff was a perfectionist, obsessive, and occasionally somewhat bossy. Mary was well aware that the boy was prone to overthinking matters, and even pushing himself to breakdowns over the simplest of situations.

While his pushiness incited a bit of worry into the woman at first, she slowly came to realize that Jeff was a good hamper for his two entirely uncontrolled friends. Though he went too far on MANY occasions, there were also enough in which the boy had at least managed to minimize the insanity of the plans that Clarence and Sumo had come up with—and Mary couldn't say she wasn't grateful for that. She smiled to herself; hopefully it could even do the slightly neurotic boy some good to hang around the chaos that was her son and the wild child of the Sumozskis, too.

Then there was a whole list of kids that Clarence hung out with simply on whim—many other boys from his class, and even an occasional girl. Mary chuckled quietly remembering their little 'gross out' contest, where the tall curly-haired girl had managed to scare them all out of the tree house. Listening to Clarence try to explain exactly what had happened was nothing short of a riot—silly, out of the blue KISSING of all things. Either way the majority of the children that Clarence hung out with tended to be friendly and interesting despite the fact that they clearly all had their own little 'things' about them that, on the surface, would make any standard mother chase them away. Not Mary, though—she knew that even though Clarence was dim, he knew the difference between right and wrong….well enough, anyways.

With that thought, Mary found her smile melting into a concerned frown. Yes, typically Clarence seemed to have a decent grasp on who to pick as friends and who WANTED to be his friend…but there were exceptions. The biggest one now sitting out in her backyard with his arms crossed, familiar grimace of disdain upon his features. Ah yes, Belson Noles…it was taking her a bit of time to get a hold on this boy, and exactly why in the world her son kept continually shoving himself into Belson's business. Granted, it was fairly clear that the curly haired child did the same, but he seemed to do so primarily to harass her son. He was almost a textbook example of a bully.

And yet Clarence still pursued his friendship.

Even with how well Mary Wendell could observe both her child and the children of others, she still had yet to figure this one out.

She watched them carefully, resting the weight of her head on one hand. They were playing—well, to put it more specifically, Clarence was running around in a circle performing some make believe act while Belson sat in the middle with a sour expression polluting his face. Her son picked up a stick lying next to the tree and hit a rock embedded in the dirt with it, letting out a series of amused giggles while nattering on about dragons. The brunette beside him just rolled his eyes and clambered to his feet to snatch the stick away from him.

Mary was surprised that the boy didn't snap at her son for 'being an idiot' or something—it seemed that was his usual route, after all—but rather, swung the stick harder against the rock. A loud clacking sound rung out through the yard and her eyes widened considerably. Clarence laughed loudly, grabbing another smaller stick to slam it against the rock with equal force. The wood immediately snapped in two upon the harsh collision and Belson rolled his eyes in frustration, pointing at the tree and making some demand that Mary couldn't quite hear. All she could tell was that Clarence nodded enthusiastically and made his way towards the tree.

And quickly began to shimmy up it.

Mary had to admit, for his general…stature, Clarence was overall a pretty nimble child when the situation suited him. He certainly was showing it right now as he made his way to one of the higher branches—his mother sighed. Once upon a time she would have stopped him from climbing that thing, be she had quickly learned that it simply wasn't going to happen. Clarence wanted that tree to be his friend or something, and at the very least Chad had built him a treehouse to accommodate that. Still, as his mother, it was a bit concerning to see him just hanging off the branch haphazardly.

Her concern, however, was replaced with immediate confusion when her boy immediately cast his head back and began to flutter his hand back and forth dramatically. Leaning out of the window a bit as to discern what her was saying, she managed to catch a few lines about "the helpless princess in need of saving from that evil ol' dragon". Lazily, still wearing his expression of irritation, Belson swung his stick at the tree; Clarence cupped his hands over his mouth to imitate the sound of a loud shriek as he swayed back and forth. With that the blonde child fell out of the tree.

Mary clung against the windowsill and lurched forward immediately, eyes wide—she knew she couldn't get out to the tree in time to catch her son. From that height, it could easily mean some fractures (possible even some broken bones) but she knew damn well that she couldn't dash the entire yard in time to stop it. Gravity and time were a cruel beast against a mother, but still she tried as she clambered across the deck.

…Only to stop halfway across as Clarence fell on Belson.

She stood there, mouth slightly open, as her son clambered off the brunette and pulled him to his feet to thank him. The woman had to admit, that was not what she had been expecting—if anything, she expected Belson to step to the side and let the blonde hit the group. It simply seemed like more his type of thing, especially with how frequently he seemed to badmouth the other boy and complain about Clarence…well, existing in the first place.

Her eyes studied the shorter boy; neither of them had bothered to acknowledge her as Belson began to clamber for excuses. She tilted her head slightly to the side to get a better view of him; with that, she could see the slight red tint that flushed his face as he crossed his arms. Mary watched in thinly veiled interest as excuses and insults immediately began to pour out of the Noles boy's mouth. Clarence merely smiled and grabbed Belson's hand, holding it up to his chest while loosely shaking it.

A slight, amused smile crossed Mary Wendell's face.

Now she understood. Now she got it.

Straightening up, she turned around to leave the boys to their little discussion (mostly onesided on Belson's part), and head back into the house. After all, it wasn't really her business to interfere in the crushes of young boys.


End file.
